Nokia 5800 : XpressMusic Review

Here is a very short hands-on review of the ownership. Feel free to ask any specific questions.......Although this must have been done already and you must have read the reviews a 100 times till now :)

Please drop in a line if the review is liked / disliked. Thanks.

The Bundle

Neat bundle package set. Phone + 3.5mm Headphones + Multimedia Controller 3.5mm jack + Strap + Stand + TV Out Cables + Extra Stylus + Manuals + Warranty Card + Battery + Adapter + Mini CD + 8GB MicroSD Card.

Thumbs up: Neat bundle.

Thumbs down:The default scratch guard on the phone has a design all over it. :mad: Nokia should have either left it completely blank or bundled a fully plain scratch guard along in the bundle.

The Startup

So I popped the battery in and started the device. The device bootup time was less than a minute up and running completely. The usual Nokia logo at the startup ( which can be replaced by Text as usual as in older models as well )

I loaded about 2-3 gig of data and even with it , the bootups finishes under 30 seconds currently.

[BREAK= 1st Impressions/The Sim&Memory Card]

1st Impressions

Well, I sat thinking there, wat! nothing different. The phone really doesn't seem different as in...its yet another SYMBIAN phone, I've been using symbian since the Nokia 3650 days so this was no different. Was very impressed with the responsiveness of the phone and the touch is very sensitive. The double select feature doesn't bother and it took me precisely 5-10 mins to get used to it. Its simple and you would get used to it eventually.

The SIM and Memory Card

The sim and the memory card have slots of the left side of the phone. As shown in the review of the phone on youtube where it was said the slot is 'difficult to get to' , I din't find any difficulty with the same. To remove the memory card , there is a option when you press the main on/off button on the phone that says 'Remove Memory Card', something like 'Safely Remove Hardware' like we have in windows. The sim slot is push and hold type unlike the memory card slots. The sim card goes in and is held there by no spring - press retention method , its just a usual slot. To insert the SIM card you do not need to remove the backcover , but to remove the sim card you need to turn the device off , remove the back panel and then push out the sim card from the phone , painfull mechanism.

[BREAK=Other Layouts/The Rear Panel]

Other Layouts

The right side of the phone has the 'excellent' screen lock/phone lock latch. This is the best thing i've ever seen in any phone till date. Best accessed using the right hand only. Above there are the Volume up and down keys which act as zoom in and out keys in the camera function. The rest usual volume control in multimedia applications and call volume control. Also at the button the camera shutter key , which when suppressed would bring up the camera, half click used to do AF during taking pictures.

Another thing to be noted is that the phone vibrates as a feedback everytime a touch is made to it , this can be successfully turned on/off as per users preference. I've personally turned it off since i din't like it. However, each time the phone is unlocked from its locked position using the slider the phone vibrates as an indication that the phone has been successfully unlocked. This again is unwanted and I was not able to figure out a way to turn this feature off , This also needs to be addressed by Nokia in the upcoming firmware for users like me who would want this feature off , just sliding of the latch is enough to lock / unlock the phone with no feedback mechanism required.

At the bottom nothing but just the mic. On top is the 3.5mm jack which is also the TV Out jack. Then the USB and the power connector. I checked the specs on the charger with the older similar small pin charger and they were different. Hence refrain from using the older one on the phone. (In my case I had to use a flat pin to round pin converter for the charger)

On plugging in anything in the 3.5mm jack a small menu pops up asking 'What has been plugged in'. On selection it would switch to that particular mode. The phone automatically detects if the headset connected is with mic or without mic, Thats what amazed me most , when I plugged in my HD201 (music discussed later) it gave me a nice prompt saying 'Use Phone Microphone' , which meant I can continue on a call on 'any' attached headphone and converse with the phone mic ! On connecting the headset with the mic the usual functionality of that was restored and no prompt was shown.

The Pick / Cancel and the Menu buttons are easily accessible and have no issues with them. Nor are they cranky or make a sound.

On the other side are the stereo speakers separated by the SIM/Memory card slots.

The Rear Panel

Well, Nothing different or unknown here , a standard flat panel with a 3.2MP Carl Zeius Camera with Dual LED flash leds. The rear panel is a 'sweat' magnet and tends to keep those stains on them!

[BREAK=Multimedia/ransferring of Music /USB]

Multimedia

Well, its a mixed bag actually. The audio quality is just amazing and so is the video quality (playback). Haven't really transferred a video to check on the same. The audio is really good even on the stock headphones but quality on better earphones are even better. The application is fast and doesnt lag any user inputs. On the other hand the camera was a little wee bit let down for me. It underperformed my expectations. Color loss was evident in some of the pictures that were taken in low-light situations. However photos taken in sunlight were fine. Video on the other hand was a little disappointing as well. I'm relying on the next firmware of Nokia to fix these issues. The camera application has lots of user options and customisatin options available, like different modes / color scheme / quality , etc etc. Good bundle with the software I must admit.

Transferring of Music / USB

I haven't like checked the exact transfer rate and benchmark it and all , all I did is took a folder with 2GB of music and simply drag - dropped the folder onto the music folder of the phone , running in MASS STORAGE Mode. An odd 150+ files , the transfer happened without any issues and took a little over 9 mins for the transfer to complete. Once done , the internal default music player automatically detected that files have been added and updated the music library and it was up and running. Played music on loudspeaker (at middle range volume ) for about 20-25 mins at stretch and there is NO heating up of the phone anywhere , nor the rear panel near the battery , nor near the speakers.....(next I'm going to check out some videos, just figuring out the same to convert an .avi file to .mp4 at the correct resolution.

[BREAK=Video/Messaging]

Video

Haven't been able to hook on to a 3rd party app for the 5800 XM for playback of videos yet , Div X player for mobile phones is still not supported by the 5800 and might take a while for its release. Although I did try out a random .mp4 file which by default plays in "Real player" of the phone and yet again , it just doesn't disappoint. Crisp , No lags , lockup or flutter at all. Bang on target. Its like a mini wide screen :)

Messaging

Well, T9 lovers rejoice , no adaptation required at all.....all you have to do is use the normal keypad layout and type away to glory. Zero adaptation skills needed.....It dint even take me a minute. SMS'ing is a breeze. The handwriting pad is AMAZING as well...its fantastic....the best part was the symbol recognition messaging system. Suppose i put up a 'custom' symbol and associate a message (for eg. Hi, How are you doing today?)....Then all I have to do is draw the custom symbol and the message "Hi, How are you doing today?" will automatically be inputted , amazing huh! :) ......so to summarize for sms'ing....10/10 for it!

[BREAK=GPS/Wifi]GPS

I decided to check on the GPS and loaded Mumbai Maps, All I wanted to do is pure tracking but at all times i was not able to lock on to any satellites, the bar would just not move and keep on saying connecting to GPS, but it wouldn't search for the satellite for a lock on the position... :no: This is what I did :

- Deleted all MAPS.

- Loaded the Map Loader software which came in a CD

- Uninstalled all the MAPS as default

- Downloaded new maps.....

Still haven't been able to check on the GPS part. I read elsewhere that what I would need to go is allow it to connect externally 'once' before it would allow running navigation offline. I have already updated the maps for India with the latest update map pack from Nokia.

WIFI

Tested the WIFI access. Since my WLAN is mac id protected I had to look out and search for my MAC; I know for sure its easy cakewalk on Windows OS phones , but no where could I find the WLAN MAC ID of my phone...

Google came to the rescue here......

For everyone's reference , all credit and thanks to the original poster of the page : Phones:Nokia keypad codes - Gammu.org Wiki

*#mac0wlan# (*#62209526#) Show MAC address of the WLAN adapter
WLAN experience was nice....downloading a 1.5mb file (read:Google Maps) took around 3 minutes. Browsing on the phone was a good experience and smooth. The browser does need a upgrade. It played flash content right out of the box...Various options like saving password , blocking pop ups are also there....

[BREAK=Gaming/Conclusion]

Gaming

The pre-loaded games are "Bounce" and "RT GR" both games fully playable on accelerometer and man-oh-man, Wat fun it is. No controls , no touching all you gotta do is move the phone and let the phone do whats it supposed to do. I even connected the phone to the TV and checked it out just for the sake of checking it out....it sure did lag. However on the phone its fun for sure.

Overall Conclusion

Overall, its an excellent device. IMO its a definite buy for people who 'do not' have a dedicated multimedia device like a i pod or anything else or who do not have multimedia enabled phones already. The camera picture and video quality is a major turnoff currently though :no: I have to agree here , N82 beats the hell out of this cam where as picture quality is considered. Deviating a little off topic from the 5800, if we are to talk about picture quality of the cam in the 5mp category, the Omnia steals the show for me.

[BREAK=Bugs]

BUGS

Here are some of the bugs that I have personally found out......

- The auto rotate doesn't work in messaging after 2 times. I.e if i do the rotate thing 2 times , the 3rd time the screen gets stuck in the default mode only and will not switch to landscape mode at all......

- After the phone has been put in USB data mode for data transfer the phone automatically resets the Messaging Inbox to go to Phone Memory , then we need to manually go into settings and set it back to the card memory.....

- During multimedia playback in full screen like videos and pictures , if we call for the Options menu the screen flickers as in to refresh the menu........

- Big BUG - The phone due to some weird reason stopped showing me call alerts. For eg. It would show i have a missed call , but it wouldn't show me from whom , the sms's stopped coming in even though i was able to send out messages absolutely fine. Noticed this after a few people at work told me that they had called me a couple of times but I dint have any alert on my screen. Again , its not that the phone dint show me that the call was coming, but it dint show me the missed call alert and the number , when it showed me the alert , it dint show me the number. I had the SAME problem in my N72 which I had got when the N72 was out (which was fixed by the updated firmware)....so certainly this would really be something wanting to be had. To fix this I had to reboot my phone and allow it to refresh its mem or whatever and then the alerts and all blocked sms's came in fine.

- Experienced keypad issues when entering WEP keys for wifi access.

[BREAK=Camera / Picture Samples]

Camera / Picture Samples

Phone Pictures - Random



Sample Pictures from the Phone



[BREAK=3rd party software]3rd party software

I've loaded Google Maps and let me tell you even though it gave me a pop up saying that its not compatible with the device. It installed and its running absolutely fine.

Also from Nokia - Hongkong website i've loaded :

-Touch Piano - App

-Touch Guitar - App

-Mail for Exchange - App

-Touch Popper - Game

-Touch Maneuver - Game

Thats it from me. Hope this is liked by everyone. Do leave back a comment.
 
Can any owner of the phone tell me if java applications(.jar) designed for 240x320 screens are working on 5800XM or not.
And if it is working, does the app occupy a part of the screen and the rest occupied by virtual buttons(D-Pad)?
 
Pat said:
Project BlueSnow FTW

whoa! i just searched it on google and it seems that it has been just released 5 days ago. now this seriously would make me reconsider my decision for getting 5800. a2dp was the main concern i was gonna buy 5800 over iphone.

but im gonna wait for a month or 2 anyways, so will decide later. hoping that iphone may also reduce their price somehow. :p
 
Does anyone know if the nokia piece bought here will work in the US or not?

The base phone will, but i am looking at the 3G part of it..

Am in need of a phone but might be leaving for the US sometime next month or so.. just wondering if i should get a piece from here and get a plan there or not.

As far as i know the unlocked piece would be pretty costly there..
 
prediff said:
Does anyone know if the nokia piece bought here will work in the US or not?
The base phone will, but i am looking at the 3G part of it..
Am in need of a phone but might be leaving for the US sometime next month or so.. just wondering if i should get a piece from here and get a plan there or not.
As far as i know the unlocked piece would be pretty costly there..

should work fine i guess......
 
hotshot05 said:
Can any owner of the phone tell me if java applications(.jar) designed for 240x320 screens are working on 5800XM or not.
And if it is working, does the app occupy a part of the screen and the rest occupied by virtual buttons(D-Pad)?

yes thats true, half of the screen is occupied by the application and half by the virtual buttons. but these applications crash a lot and cause erratic behaviour, i tried several but wasnt satisified.
waiting for some s60 series5 applications to release now, so i may use them. out of the box, the 5800 xm is bland and simple with not so many options as u may expect
 
Pat said:
Comments in bold !!
Point No. 9 clearly shows how much time you have spent with iPhone and how much you know about it! No offence!
LOL..
How much does apple pay you for being an ignorant fool ??:rofl:
Or you just do it for free??

When you talk about MAc os on a laptop you boast and say all the things it can do "Out of the box",
And when you talk iphone you start mentioning all the "projects and applications" that barely manage to provide the functionality and yes, arent provided "out of the box"..

Then again you'l have some wise ass answers..:) Enjoy scavenging for your iphoney posts through out the forums..:hap2:
 
Sidhu_21 said:
yes thats true, half of the screen is occupied by the application and half by the virtual buttons. but these applications crash a lot and cause erratic behaviour, i tried several but wasnt satisified.
waiting for some s60 series5 applications to release now, so i may use them. out of the box, the 5800 xm is bland and simple with not so many options as u may expect
Nokia just provided backward compatiblity, wait for some time, for it to improve more and apps to get updated...:eek:hyeah:
 
Party Monger said:
LOL..
How much does apple pay you for being an ignorant fool ??:rofl:

A little less than Nokia/MS pays you for being a stupid,brainless anti-fanboy :)

Or you just do it for free??

When you talk about MAc os on a laptop you boast and say all the things it can do "Out of the box",
And when you talk iphone you start mentioning all the "projects and applications" that barely manage to provide the functionality and yes, arent provided "out of the box"..

Then again you'l have some wise ass answers..:) Enjoy scavenging for your iphoney posts through out the forums..:hap2:

Wow man, you are a certified fool! The discussion was about what iPhone is and is not capable off! There was no discussion about which phone provides what out-of-the-box! So please keep your wise ass comments to yourself. Thank you :)
 
Pat said:
A little less than Nokia/MS pays you for being a stupid,brainless anti-fanboy :)

Wow man, you are a certified fool! The discussion was about what iPhone is and is not capable off! There was no discussion about which phone provides what out-of-the-box! So please keep your wise ass comments to yourself. Thank you :)

Pat, Lets stick to discussing Nokia 5800 in a Thread meant to be review of Nokia 5800 :no:
No point in having arguments leading to mess. iphone-tube-omnia gadget war can hapen in their own comparison specific threads. :cool2:
 
Pat said:
Wow man, you are a certified fool! The discussion was about what iPhone is and is not capable off! There was no discussion about which phone provides what out-of-the-box! So please keep your wise ass comments to yourself. Thank you :)

I bet Apple or perhaps even steve jobs would PAT you on you back for your commendable work..

FYI, this is a discussion abt 5800 and not iphone..So mr wise ass, its you who's a certified fool..
The bold part proves who's the fool..you just proved what i said here

When you talk about MAc os on a laptop you boast and say all the things it can do "Out of the box",
And when you talk iphone you start mentioning all the "projects and applications" that barely manage to provide the functionality and yes, arent provided "out of the box"..
:rofl:
Sorry no more Arguments with certified fools like you..enjoy..:D
 
I would like to ask the following question to peeps who are saying 5800 is better then iphone.

Have you used a iphone with the apps in person ?

If yes then,

Have you used a 5800 ?

If yes then,

Do you seriously believe that 5800 is better then iphone ?

and

Would you let one go(iphone) over a 5800 for the same price ?

and

Would you have bought a 5800 for 28K(same price as iphone and the others) ?

IMHO and i mean it 5800 is cheaper cause its an inferior product then an iphone. There is no ways it can be compared to an iphone. The OS of 5800 is also nothing to be proud of as compared to an iphone. The phone is slower then an iphone(Try filling up the mem card and then try searching for a video in the video centre and try doing the same with the iphone). The screen might have a better res then the iphone but iphone's is a lot brighter then the 5800. 5800 looks cheaper product then the iphone(Visually speaking). The multi touch of the iphone is a big big big plus while Browsing, Playing games, Going through the photo gallery and at lots more places then the 5800 and finally you feel a lot comfortable using iphone with your thumb as compared to a 5800 where you feel really comfortable using it with a stylus.

Trust me if you have got the money then go in for a iphone cause 5800 is compromised product and hence its cheaper.

Also as for the camera. 5800 is only as good as an iphones.
 
Party Monger said:
FYI, this is a discussion abt 5800 and not iphone..So mr wise ass, its you who's a certified fool..
The bold part proves who's the fool..you just proved what i said here

Oh dear...You are not only foolish but also blind (or probably blinded by anti-fanboyism)! Take a look at who started the comparison against iPhone in your so-called 5800 thread and then speak! Moron :mad:
 
Can we have a end to this pointless bickering?

And AFAIK the multi touch everyone adores about the iphone, is patented by apple and hence hardly anyone else is going to have it.

No doubt, iphone as it is, is a damn good piece.

But not everyone prefers to resort to jail breaking to make sure they get all they want of the hardware.

I have used the iphone and had some time handling the 5800 as well.

As a negative, the 5800 could definitely have been more responsive, it has the hardware to pull it off, now only if Nokia starts getting its firmware right.
 
prediff said:
C
And AFAIK the multi touch everyone adores about the iphone, is patented by apple and hence hardly anyone else is going to have it.

Incorrect. Apple has only patented multi-touch gestures. And the Palm Pre does have multi-touch (also G1 is capable of it)
 
Switch said:
I would like to ask the following question to peeps who are saying 5800 is better then iphone.

Have you used a iphone with the apps in person ?

If yes then,

Have you used a 5800 ?

If yes then,

Do you seriously believe that 5800 is better then iphone ?

and

Would you let one go(iphone) over a 5800 for the same price ?

and

Would you have bought a 5800 for 28K(same price as iphone and the others) ?

IMHO and i mean it 5800 is cheaper cause its an inferior product then an iphone. There is no ways it can be compared to an iphone. The OS of 5800 is also nothing to be proud of as compared to an iphone. The phone is slower then an iphone(Try filling up the mem card and then try searching for a video in the video centre and try doing the same with the iphone). The screen might have a better res then the iphone but iphone's is a lot brighter then the 5800. 5800 looks cheaper product then the iphone(Visually speaking). The multi touch of the iphone is a big big big plus while Browsing, Playing games, Going through the photo gallery and at lots more places then the 5800 and finally you feel a lot comfortable using iphone with your thumb as compared to a 5800 where you feel really comfortable using it with a stylus.

Trust me if you have got the money then go in for a iphone cause 5800 is compromised product and hence its cheaper.

Also as for the camera. 5800 is only as good as an iphones.

Dude stop being such a killjoy and let bakras like me who got this phone enjoy it for a little while (j/k)

Anyway please stop comparing the iphone to this...The iphone is in a totally different league altogether although the ergonomics of this phone is a tad better and so is the camera...Other than that the iphone whips the Nokia's butt in every which way. The only reason i didnt get the iphone was every other guy i know has an iphone and im already bored of it so thought ill try something different. Dont be surprised if u see this in the market section in a couple of months time though....
 
Fahrenheit said:
Dude stop being such a killjoy and let bakras like me who got this phone enjoy it for a little while (j/k)

Anyway please stop comparing the iphone to this...The iphone is in a totally different league altogether although the ergonomics of this phone is a tad better and so is the camera...Other than that the iphone whips the Nokia's butt in every which way. The only reason i didnt get the iphone was every other guy i know has an iphone and im already bored of it so thought ill try something different. Dont be surprised if u see this in the market section in a couple of months time though....

Well... What can i say... Other then i too am a (sorry) owner of the 5800...
 
Hmm here's a hypothetical question to you Switch..

If you hadnt seen an Iphone or heard of it, would you still be as disappointed as you are with your 5800? Just asking bcos i feel that the excessive hype killed what was a decent attempt at Touch screen phones by Nokia...
 
Fahrenheit said:
Dude stop being such a killjoy and let bakras like me who got this phone enjoy it for a little while (j/k)

Anyway please stop comparing the iphone to this...The iphone is in a totally different league altogether although the ergonomics of this phone is a tad better and so is the camera...Other than that the iphone whips the Nokia's butt in every which way. The only reason i didnt get the iphone was every other guy i know has an iphone and im already bored of it so thought ill try something different. Dont be surprised if u see this in the market section in a couple of months time though....

Humm....I agree a bit here. Let me quote my reasons for picking the 5800.

1. I dont want to learn or get used to or get accustomed to any other interface other than symbian. (yes, im a symbian fanboy)
2. I cant afford a iphone ATM.
3. I couldnt afford a pricey plan to go with the iphone from vodaphone or airtel.

All said and done , if the iphone and the 5800 were equally priced with same warranty clauses and no strings attached , then i think i would have got the iphone.

Deviating further on , I personally feel the Omnia really kicks a$$ of the iphone and the 5800 by miles....The camera quality of the Omnia is on par with a 5mp standalone digicam. Lets not get into the WM part. Even the Omnia has its -ves but then lets face this once and for all...
Nokia 5800 - Iphone - Omnia , all are running on different platforms with different leagues of features to offer.
 
Nokia 5800 is really slow compared to iphone day before yesterday I went for a 5800 demo(for timepass) and when I compared it with my iphone I was really disappointed.The guy was struggling to change photo with his finger while I had managed to changed ard 20 photos;) ,even while fast forwarding videos there is pixelation on the 5800(is it true or the video was not properly encoded:huh: .BUt the sound quality of 5800 rocks its simply awesome:eek:hyeah:
 
Fahrenheit said:
Hmm here's a hypothetical question to you Switch..
If you hadnt seen an Iphone or heard of it, would you still be as disappointed as you are with your 5800? Just asking bcos i feel that the excessive hype killed what was a decent attempt at Touch screen phones by Nokia...

thats kind of a ridiculous question. you certainly cannot expect a phone not to be compared to others. if you go by that logic, say if you havent seen any other phone except nokia 1110, woud you still buy it even though you have the money to get a 20k phone? yes you would since you havent seen any other phone. that doesnt necessarily make it better than others available. obviously a comparison will be made in order to see where it stands and if it is worth it. if you dont have a better product it is bound that you will feel that the next one line is the best simply because you dont have another product to compare.

im not saying the 5800 is a bad phone, it is a decent phone.

5800 and iphone should be considered in different leagues. there will be many who would buy the 5800 because they would not be able to afford the iphone. those who can buy the iphone will look to compare and see what they like.
 
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